The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is an Act that Congress passed in response to a growing number of abusive collection practices used by collection agencies. The FDCPA provides guidelines that creditors must follow when trying to collect debts from consumers. This Act applies to debt collectors. A debt collector is defined as any person who regularly collects debts that are owed to others. This act also applies to attorney collectors but in-house collections are not covered.
If the collection department from your favorite store is contacting you regarding your credit card with them, they are not restricted by the FDCPA, but they are governed by the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act. However, if that same store used an outside collection agency, that agency is governed by the FDCPA.
Some restrictions that the FDCPA puts on debt collectors are: